Fear of Fire
by Flame-Sparkey
Summary: Life has always sucked, the Big Bang just made it suck a little more. Lou lived like any other delinquent of Dakota with three others that were the closest thing she has to friends. Now her gang is down by one and she has to also run from Static and Gear. (May have romance later. The rating is just a precaution.)
1. Chapter 1

I hid myself in my hoodie as I walked by people, sometimes I would bump into a few and quickly reach into their pockets. No one seemed to noticed, if they did then they didn't care. Not like they need this money, at least not as much as I do. Ducking into an alley, I begin to count my loot. Should be enough to satisfy him. Stuffing everything in my bag, I head to school.

I could already hear trouble when I entered the school. F-stop had some kid against the lockers. Growling started behind me.

"What, Eddie? Wanting to help the poor bastard?"

"No and don't call me that!" I rolled my eyes.

"Then what's got you worked up, Slice?"

"Just wish F-stop didn't think he's the top dog." Suddenly Wade pulled F-stop off of the kid and F-stop walked away.

"He doesn't. Even hothead knows Wade is." This didn't please him either.

"Did you get any loot?"

"Yeah… I'll meet you after school." We parted ways and the day went by slowly.

Only Tim and Eddie were in the abandoned house when I arrived. Eddie almost took my arm along with the money.

"This is it?!" I glared at him.

"More than last time."

"Yeah, but that wasn't much either." Tim voiced his thoughts, Eddie's suck up.

"Shut up, Tim." His glare then matched Eddie's.

"Oh, sorry. I mean T." Sarcasm dripped from me. What made these guys choose such stupid nicknames? Suddenly a loud noise interrupted our thoughts.

"Guys! Guys! Guess what!"

"Just spit it out, Skitts!" The boy liked to be called Skittles, but Eddie thought it wasn't 'badass' enough.

"All the big time gangs are gathering for a fight at the docks!" That removed the frowns from the other two.

"What? You're not thinking of going?! They'll kick our asses!" Eddie's frown returned at my sound logic. He started pacing around the room.

"We'll just hide. When the last gang standing is exhausted we'll take them out. We'll become the top dogs!" Pathetic… But everyone else seemed to like the idea. Despite my bad feelings, I have to go with them, someone has to make sure they don't get killed.

"Shit. They really are all here." Skittles seemed to realize that this was a bad idea, but we can't back out now, Eddie won't let us. The other two couldn't stop grinning. Fighting soon started and it wasn't long before the cops showed up.

"Let's get out of here!" We began to run, and I could hear shots fired. Before we could make it to the fence, an explosion stopped us. The air filled with purple gas and we fell down in coughing fits. Last thing I saw was everyone trying to crawl away, then nothing.

Blinding light kept me from waking up, but eventually I was able to open my eyes. Looking around I could tell I was in a hospital. Tim seemed to be on a bed next to me, but I couldn't see Skittles or Eddie. There were plenty of people around me though, and all of them were groaning or crying out in pain. What I saw next was horrifying, some kid started melting. The doctors rushed around him, but did nothing.

"Lue?" I turned my attention back to Tim, awake and in pain. He screamed and I tried to sit up, but quickly fell back.

"Tim?! Whats the matter?!" His skin started peeling and his screams became shrieks. "Shit, Tim!" I began to cry as doctors huddled around him, but refused to even touch him. The shrieks became louder and I tried to get to him.

"Get back on the bed, miss!" I ignored them and pushed doctors away. Tim's screams stopped as he became a skeleton, the rest of him laying around him and falling to the floor.

"No, no, no… Tim…" I ran out of the hospital, several doctors trying to catch me. As I stepped outside, I heard a loud bang. Ignoring it, I ran till I got to our hangout, falling to my knees and sobbing as soon as I got inside.

"Hey!... Lue?!" Skittles ran to me and tried to get answers, I just continued to sob. "Come on, Lue. It's okay." He held me, unaware that we could end up like Tim and that other kid.

"T is dead…" The kid had a look of shock on his face as I told him the news. "What about Slice?" I shrugged.

"Haven't seen him." He sat down on one of the old couches and held his face in his hands.

"We shouldn't have gone to the docks. I shouldn't have told Slice. Now we're all going to die because of me!" I sat next to the kid.

"Its not your fault, we all made the decision to go." He leaned against me as I patted him on the back. Don't let him die, hes only in middle school… Just a kid. Though being in highschool doesn't make me an adult. "Besides, you don't know that we'll die. Maybe we'll get lucky and only become really sick." I added a poor laugh in hopes that it would cheer up a bit.

He just looked at me with a scowl, definitely Eddie's brother. I got up and stretched.

"Come on, lets see if we can find Edd… I mean Slice.'' We had spent several hours searching, but came up with nothing. Eddie was nowhere to be found and neither of us could decide whether we wanted to declare him dead or not. Upon return to the hangout, I fell onto a couch and almost fell asleep.

"Tomorrow. We'll find him tomorrow."

"Sure, Skittles. We'll look for him again when we wake up." This seemed to be enough for him, soft snores came from him. Following his example, I fell asleep myself.


	2. Chapter 2

I don't know why I had thought sleeping would be a good idea. Nightmares of dying in similar ways like Tim filled my sleep. When I woke up, I was drenched in sweat and gulping for air. Skittles was still asleep and a quick look outside told me it was still early morning.

I took out the money and started counting it. Eddie had been so excited that he forgot to have me split it. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough. I put the money back and tried to go back to sleep, all I ended up doing was stare at the dirty ceiling.

At some point, the sun started rising and Skittles started waking up. He stared at me for a few minutes and then his surroundings, seeming to have forgotten where he was.

"Did you sleep well?" He sat up and rubbed his eyes. His answer came slowly and sleepily.

"Not really… Had a lot of nightmares…"

"Me too." He got up and stretched. "Wanna get something to eat?"

"Can we go to Burger Fool?"

"For breakfast?" He gave me puppy eyes and I gave in. The walk was slow and quiet, we were exhausted mentally. We tried to keep death at the edge of our thoughts, and we did somewhat. Some laughs were shared and smiles exchanged, but they disappeared quickly.

Tvs everywhere where showing the local news that had nothing to talk about except bang babies. Turns out some people got superpowers.

" Holy shit! We might not die! We might get superpowers!" Skittles had already decided that we were going to get powers instead of dying, despite no powers showing themselves. He was practically skipping as we searched for Eddie. "Slice is probably still alive! We can become superheroes!"

"You really think Slice will decide to stop stealing just cause he got powers? Or that it will be that easy for us to stop?" This calmed him down a bit and he frowned.

"We could at least try…"

"We might not even have powers… Might not be affected at all."

"Just had to bring me down."

"Someone had to." He chuckled and we continued on our merry way, checking every alley and abandoned building we could find. Which was pointless of course, Eddie was snoozing on one of the couches when we got back. Skittles almost hugged Eddie, but the glare he was given made him stumble back.

"Look who finally showed up." Eddie sat up and began to glare at me along with Skittles.

"You mean you finally showed up. We've been looking for you since yesterday."

"Was figuring some stuff out."

"What stuff?" Eddie's face formed a scowl and Skittles backed away from me, not wanting to get in the middle of our soon to be fight.

"My powers." He held his hand out and his nails began to grow to sword length. "Bit heavy, but they can do major damage." I backed away in fear of being stabbed. "What about you guys?"

"Don't know, too busy looking for you to find anything out." Eddie stood up and his nails retracted.

"What about T?"

"Dead." He looked mildly surprised for once. "Whole body peeled off his bones, right after some other kid melted."

"Too bad… We'll just have to deal with what we got… Now all we need to do is figure out what we got."

"Why?" Skittles looked eager and I could tell he was hoping Eddie was going to say 'So we can become heroes!', but I knew what was coming.

"So we can take what we want and become top dogs!" God, hes obsessed. Skittles frowned a bit, but said nothing.

"And exactly how do you plan on accomplishing that?" Instead of frowning at me like he usually does, he smirked. Then he took a swipe at Skittles.

"What the fuck?!" He backed up quickly, barely missing getting hit.

"Figured the best way to bring about your powers is to put ya in a situation where you need them." He chased after the fleeing Skittles. Wasn't long before Skittles tripped. "Come on! Use your powers before I make ya bleed!" He slashed at his stomach.

"Shit!" Eddie retracted his nails and had a look of disgust on his face. I ran over to them and took a look at the wound.

"What the hell, Eddie?!" He glared at me.

"Its Slice! And you better remember that or else you end up worse than Skits!" We stared at each other, Eddie turned and began to walk out. "Pathetic. You two aren't worth my time, never were." I heard the door slam, almost breaking off its hinges.

"Alright, Skittles, take off your shirt." I ripped the shirt into strips and took a closer look at the wound. Not too deep, but he could bleed out. I attempted to clean it up a bit and began wrapping the strips around his stomach. "Lets get you on a couch."

He nodded in agreement and winced as he got up. "Careful, Skittles…" I helped to the couch and laid him down. "I'm gonna have to get some shit for this…"

"Hope I don't get a shitty power like being able to make my nails longer." I chuckled.

"That shitty power cut you up bad." He scowled and turned his face towards the back of the couch. "Maybe you'll get rainbow powers to go along with your name." He turned his face back towards me, a big grin on his face, and he began to wiggle his eyebrows.

"Wanna taste the rainbow?~"

"Not this one, probably tastes like shit."

"Awww… Hand me the tv." The tv was one of those emergency ones. Tiny with antennas, could get about three channels, was in black and white, and you had to wind it for about 30 minutes before you turned it on. I handed it to him and he began to wind it.

"I'm gonna get some stuff while you try to turn on the tv." He nodded in acknowledgment and headed outside. The nearest pharmacy was just a few blocks away. The guy at the register didn't seem to know I was there. I grabbed bandages, alcohol, and random things I felt we would need in the future.

"We're about to close." I looked back at the guy, who had an annoyed look on his face.

"I'll be quick." After I grabbed some more things, I dropped them on the counter. I payed him and walked out with everything, a smile formed on my face due to the fact that he hadn't noticed that I slipped a few things into my hoodie.

Night was setting in and I could hear sirens in the distance. They got closer, maybe he had noticed… But some firetrucks speeding by and smoke coming from a few blocks away told me he hadn't. I kept walking and when I got near our hideout, F-stop ran by, laughing, and bumped into me.

"Watch it!" He growled at me, but kept running. Skittles was still on the couch, no longer winding the tv, but had not turned it on. I laid the supplies on the ground and took the tv from him, turned it on, and laid it on a cardboard box. After adjusting the antanas a bit, I was able to get it to show the news channel. More about bang babies…

Skittles sat up and I removed the strips of what used to be his shirt. He'd wince every now and then as I cleaned his wound.

"Um…. Hey, Lue?... Do your hands usually glow?..." I looked at him, completely confused, but returning my gaze to my hands I could see that they were giving off a faint silvery glow. They began to glow brighter and I was about to remove my hands when Skittles' wound started closing. "Holy… Your power is healing!" I removed my hands and stared at what was now a faint scar. My hands no longer glowed and Skittles was grinning like a mad man.


	3. Chapter 3

I had been staring at my hands for about an hour, Skittles in the background celebrating about my powers for me. It wasn't that I hated my new power, I'm actually overjoyed. My appearance didn't mutate, my powers aren't destructive, and most importantly, I didn't die. Relief filled me and I could feel myself smile a bit. Only a bit, there's still Skittles to worry about.

"I can't wait for my powers! They're gonna be awesome! I just know it!" He was practically jumping off the walls, spinning and twirling like a kid in a candy store. "As soon as I get mine, we can go find Slice again!"

"I don't think Slice wants anything to do with us…" He looked like he was mulling the thought over, but not for very long.

"My brother can't do shit without us, powers or no powers!" Skittles went back to dancing, having full faith that Eddie would join up with us again. He was right, Eddie is a complete idiot and without the three… Two… of us… He'd end up in jail. My focus went back to the news, they were talking about some kid calling himself Static.

"Someone beat us on the superhero thing!"

"Awwww! God dammit!"

/

I woke up to what I thought was an alarm clock, but remembered we don't have one, and recognized the sound as sirens continuing to get louder. Skittles seemed oblivious and continued snoring peacefully. For a moment, I was worried that they were after me or Skittles, but the sirens got quieter as they continued to wherever.

I wound the tv and placed it on the makeshift table. More about bang babies, this particular reporter found all bang babies to be menaces and extremely dangerous. I looked down at my hands.

"Yep, just a ticking time bomb." I changed the channel to something that liked to run shows that ended a long time ago or old movies. Luckily my favorite was on, something about a genie. I leaned back on the couch, maybe I can go back to sleep.

Sleep was an off and on thing for a while, by the time Skittles had woken up, the tv was off and I was staring at the ceiling. He yawned loudly and fell on his face trying to get up. I received a glare as I laughed at him.

"Very funny… Now can you heal my face?"

"It's not that bad… And I don't really know how to activate my powers." He got up from the floor.

"You're no help." He sat next to me, grumbling, and I resumed staring at the ceiling. "What are we doing today?" I shrugged. "We can try to figure out my powers… And if we do then we can go find Slice."

"Skittles, why do we need to go back to him? He cut you, he doesn't care about us. Besides, you won't become a superhero if you follow him around."

"He's my brother. I gotta stick with him." I sighed.

"Fine." Several hours and yelling matches later, Skittles' powers were still unknown. We were spread out on our respective couches, completely exhausted.

"I'm hungry!"

"Then go get some food."

"But I don't want to get up!" He was staring at me with the puppy face.

"No." Grumbling was his only response. I'm hungry too, but I'm also too tired to do anything.

"Delivery?"

"Do you have a phone?"

"No… But I can get one…" I waved him off as he got up and went out to get a phone. My eyelids became heavy and I fell asleep.

/

Waking up to the smell of food was definitely pleasant. I opened my eyes to see boxes of pizza, two liters, and a grinning Skittles chomping on a slice.

"You finally awake?"

"Don't talk with your mouth full."

"Yes, mom." I grabbed a slice and watched the tv. Skittles must have wound it earlier. It was back on the news channel, talking more about bang babies. When they showed a video of Static, Skittles eyes lit up.

"Skittles… Are you sure you wanna find Eddie?" He seemed hesitant and stared at his pizza crust.

"It's Slice… Not Eddie." That seemed to be his answer. He didn't say anything else, just ate at his crust.


	4. Character Bios

Author's Note:Gives away some things, but I was asked what the characters looked like so here is this thing.

\

Name: Lou

Gender: Female

Age: 15

Ethnicity: Caucasian

Appearance: Has long hair that she dyed black and dark green eyes. Is of average height and weight. Wears tank tops and yoga pants, has a hoodie for colder weather. Has dark bags under her eyes and her clothes and body are dirty due to living on the streets.

Personality: Constantly tired and is stuck between wanting to do something and wanting to do nothing. Humor is slightly perverted and dark. Can come off cold and sarcastic. Enjoys old tv shows and music.

History: Mother died when she was very young. Father struggled to support both of them. She ran away at the age of ten thinking it would help her father, went back a week later. Her father later died when coming home from work by getting caught in the middle of a gang fight. Refused to go to foster care and ran away again. Sometimes sneaks into the school so she doesn't feel like a complete idiot. Met Eddie and joined his gang.

Powers: Healing. Can heal wounds and illnesses, but diseases and defects would require her to transfer them from the person to herself.

Sexuality: Straight

Significant Others: None

Family: Father(Deceased), Mother(Deceased)

Friends: Skittles, Amelia(Myth), Tim(T)

Enemies: Eddie(Slice), Tim(T)

\

Name: Skittles

Gender: Male

Age: 13

Ethnicity: African-American

Appearance: Has closely shaved black hair thats starting to grow back out, and light brown eyes. Tall with a slight build. Wears simple shirts, jeans, and a plain white bandana on his head. Clothes and body are extremely dirty due to living on the streets.

Personality: Childish and his humor depends on his mood, either light or perverted. Has to be doing something at all times when awake. Can sleep for long periods of time. His stomach is a bottomless pit.

History: Father left sometime after he was born and his mother went into a state of depression, eventually was sent to a mental health facility. His brother has been the one raising and protecting him. When he was 12 he joined Eddie's gang. Has access to his home, but finds the place depressing and prefers to hang out at the hideout.

Powers: Can shoot energy blasts. Can control the size of the energy blasts.

Sexuality: Straight

Significant Others: None

Family: Father(Left), Mother, Brother(Eddie/Slice)

Friends: Lou, Amelia(Myth), Tim(T)

Enemies: None

\

Name: Eddie(Slice)

Gender: Male

Age: 17

Ethnicity: African-American

Appearance: Has black hair shaved close to his head and hazel eyes, brown being the dominant color. Tall with a slight build. Wears baggy jeans and button-up shirts. His clothes and body are clean sense he stays at his house.

Personality: Cold, sarcastic, and has dark humor. Seems to always be angry at something. Power hungry and greedy.

History: Father left sometime after his brother was born and his mother went into a state of depression, eventually was sent to a mental health facility. Raised and protected his brother till his brother joined his gang. Started his gang when he was 15.

Powers: Can grow nails to a sword length. Nails toughen to keep from breaking.

Sexuality: Straight

Significant Others: None

Family: Father(Left), Mother, Brother(Skittles)

Friends: Tim(T)

Enemies: Static, Gear, Lou, Amelia(Myth)

\

(Deceased)

Name: Tim(T)

Gender: Male

Age: 17

Ethnicity: Hispanic

Appearance: Spiked hair he dyed blonde and dark brown eyes. Tall with a heavy build. Wore plain t-shirts and jeans. Slightly dirty due to forgetting to take a shower every once and a while.

Personality:

History: Whereabouts of parents is unknown, but him and his sister lived with their foster family. Had often picked pockets for the fun of it even before he joined Eddie's gang. Protective of his little sister.

Powers: Unknown

Sexuality: Pansexual

Significant Others: Eddie/Slice(Had a crush on him)

Family: Foster care, Sister(Amelia/Myth)

Friends: Eddie(Slice), Skittles, Lou

Enemies: Lou

\

Name: Amelia(Myth)

Gender: Female

Age: 15

Ethnicity: Hispanic

Appearance: Has short dark brown hair and hazel eyes, blue being the dominant color. Short with a average weight. Wears cropped tops and jeans or summer dresses.

Personality: Childish, flirty, and slightly spoiled. Enjoys messing with others and making everyone laugh. A little shy and has been diagnosed with depression.

History: Whereabouts of parents is unknown, but she and her brother lived with their foster family. Helped her brother pickpockets by distracting their victims. When her brother joined Eddie's gang she decided it was time to stop getting herself in trouble and started to distance herself from Tim.

Powers: Shapeshifter (Can change into mythical creatures)

Sexuality: Lesbian

Significant Others: Unknown

Family: Foster care, Brother(Tim/T)(Deceased)

Friends: Lou, Skittles

Enemies: Eddie(Slice)


End file.
